10 years of working in Early Years and I have seen it all, including so many standard tripping over while running and ending up with grazes in the most bizarre places as a result. I’ve learnt that children bruise and mark so easily. But I’m baffled by this one! The top part looks like a blister and the lower darker area sort of looks like a bruise? Could be the lighting - the middle looks like a scrape- my guess would be he’s fallen flat onto something - does toy translate to trike or push car (like a cozy coupe or such) in this instance? It almost looks like he’s toppled off some kind of moving play equipment whilst it’s moving (or someone else has “attached” to him and dragged him while his own moving toy was on its side - I’ve seen similar)
I fully agree here the mistake the nursery have made is not calling you and not giving you a proper explanation. The rule at my old nursery and at my current school is like someone above said - anything above the neck counts as the head and gets a phone call, severe or minor. Anything else is down to common sense - so a scraped knee won’t get a call but marks like your sons on another body part likely would put of courtesy. Though I will add that no parent ever comes rushing in or comes early even when’s theirs a giant egg on their child’s head.
I wouldn’t go pouncing to Ofsted yet or go in all guns blazing - however you do need to be firm for an explanation and ask why they didn’t ring you. The fact is a phone call doesn’t change what’s happened but it reduces the shock to you and is - to lack the word I need - polite? Demonstrates they care?
Like I say I’ve seen most things now and have made one error like this myself. My error was a child who managed to poke themselves in the cheek with the handle end of their knife at lunch and child was upset but I couldn’t see a mark so gave them an ice pack for a while and left it be. Well about an hour before they went home the bruise came up out of nowhere and it looked like they had been punched and obviously parents were not pleased. Lesson learnt.
Accidents happen however many safety protocols you put in place and however hard you watch them all (risks assessments bring the risk as low as possible but they can’t be eliminated). I’ve had a child trip and bang their head on the Community Play furniture before and require stitches (the perfectly round no sharp edges specifically for nurseries furniture still requires stitches when hit at the right angle). - likewise have had a child fall off a trike and fracture their arm on tarmac (it’s insane).
But - we knew what had happened, we saw what had happened, and explained it thoroughly to parents and reassessed the areas (tbh in both these instances not much could be done).
Op doesn’t seem to have had an explanation. Whilst eyes can’t be everywhere all the time they should know what happened - whether he fell on the toy, was whacked with the toy, where it happened - before you do anything OP you need to gauge this out of the staff. It should be on the form anyway - “fell over” isn’t enough. The forms have to be very specific. Your sons injuries are not good - if they can’t explain, and really have no idea - go higher. Is the nursery a chain? That’s a good place to start.
Establish why you weren’t informed earlier, establish the cause. Does it appear to be a genuine nasty accident and they should have phones but didn’t and the lack of call is the biggest crime? Or does it sound like dangerous toys were left out, children not attended well enough, bad practise basically!? Did they underestimate it at the time and therefore not ring? Ask to see manager - talk, calmly ask for explanation, it’s currently not good enough, you want to know how and why communication wasn’t there. Do this first and go from there.
I do hope your boy gets better soon, bless that adorable floppy hair.